Dragons roar past Northants

Harris: Delivered the goods

Related links

Teams

• Glamorgan
• Northamptonshire

Also see

• Your View
• Athers' View
• Vaughan video
• Vaughan captaincy record
• Vaughan factfile

NatWest Pro40 - Division Two
Northampton
Glamorgan Dragons 155 v Northamptonshire Steelbacks 143-9
Glamorgan beat Northamptonshire by 12 runs

James Harris and Dean Cosker gave the Glamorgan Dragons NatWest Pro40 promotion hopes a huge boost as they helped their side to a 12-run victory over Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Wantage Road.

Harris and Cosker ripped through the Steelbacks top-order taking taking two wickets apiece for 17 and 19 respectively as the hosts once again fell short with the bat after dismissing Glamorgan for 155.

Tom Maynard was the star for the visitors hitting 46 off 59 balls as they recovered from 26-2 - David Lucas, Monty Panesar, Jason Brown and Andrew Hall all picking up two wickets for the hosts.

Missed

But Northants never got going in reply - injured skipper Nicky Boje's presence with the bat sorely missed - Riki Wessels top scoring with 35 as Glamorgan moved up to second in the table.

David Hemp got the visitors innings off to a positive start, however Lucas had the Bermuda international lbw for 15 before sending Michael Powell back to the pavilion for a duck.

The visitors looked in trouble at 54-3 after South African all-rounder Hall removed Robert Croft for 22, however Maynard - son of cricket manager Matthew - and Jamie Dalrymple steadied the ship with a partnership of 52.

However the Dragons reprieve soon ended when former Middlesex all-rounder Dalrymple played one shot to many, holing out to Johann Louw off the bowling of Brown for 21.

Dalrymple's departure opened the gates for a flood of Glamorgan wickets - Maynard falling four runs short of his 50 in the following over thanks to a smart stumping from Niall O'Brien off Panesar.

The England spinner had Ben Wright removed for four in the same manner two overs later before Alex Wharf (six) and Harris (15) came and went quickly.

Former Australia international Jason Gillespie was soon run out for two before Cosker was cleaned up for a duck as the visitors slumped to 155 all-out off 38.5 overs.

Wicket

Stand-in skipper Stephen Peters was the first man to fall for the Steelbacks dragging on Harris for 15 in the 12th over with the score on 37.

Irishman O'Brien's tenuous 34 came to and with the score at 56-3 when he was trapped lbw for off the bowling of Croft.

Hall quickly followed in similar fashion for five off Cosker before Johan van der Wath was cleaned up by Dalrymple.

Wessels gave the Steelbacks faithful promise but failed to step up to the occasion smashing Wharf straight to Hemp attempting a maximum with the score on 114.

Northants were well below the run rate and when Lucas and Louw fell with four overs remaining Brown (15no) and Panesar, who finished unbeaten on four, needed 13 too many in the dying overs.